State, Violence, and Revolution in the Political Thought of Andrea Caffi

Authors

  • Alberto Castelli

Abstract

Alberto Castelli explores the political thought of Andrea Caffi (1887–1955), situating him as a critical yet often overlooked voice in twentieth-century debates on revolution, violence, and the state. Central to his philosophy is a radical critique of the state as intrinsically coercive, incapable of fostering justice or freedom. Instead, Caffi envisioned “society” as a fragile but essential sphere of spontaneous sociability, grounded in human solidarity and free from domination.

Author Biography

Alberto Castelli

Alberto Castelli teaches History of Political Thought at the University of Insubria, Italy. His research focusses on pacifist and libertarian theories in the twentieth century. He edited the new Italian edition of Critique of Violence (2017) by Caffi and the publication of Caffi’s manuscript La dottrina fascista (2022). Among his works in English are the volume The Peace Discourse in Europe 1900–1945 (Routledge, 2019); and the essays “Liberation through Violence in Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth," Peace & Change 47, no 4 (October 2022): 325–340, and “Bertrand Russell’s Commitment against Atomic Warfare,” in Four Philosophers and the Bomb, ed. Alberto Castelli, Giunia Gatta, Micaela Latini, and Francesco Raschi (Routledge, 2025).

Journal cover image in sepia of a World War One era soldier breaking a rifle in half

Downloads

Published

2025-11-18

Issue

Vol. 2025 No. 2 (2025): Anarchism and Peace History

Section

Articles

License

Material published by Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies is under the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike-3.0 unported creative commons copyright license found here. As such, users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the work) and/or remix (to adapt the work), under the following conditions:

Users must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

With the understanding that:

  • Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. 
  • Where the work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license. 

In no way are any of the following rights affected by the license: (1) your fair dealing or fair use rights, or other applicable copyright exceptions and limitations; (2) the author's moral rights; (3) rights other persons may have either in the work itself or in how the work is used such as publicity or privacy rights.

For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.